Paul’s Good News – 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

A text – 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

15 Now I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, ² through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

³ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures ⁴ and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you believed.

A reflection:

Monday’s gospel text described Jesus calling the first of his disciples. Today’s text is from Paul, another reluctant receiver of God’s call. But look at his impassioned words to the people God sent him to in his work as an apostle. He gives them the good news: Jesus died for our sins, truly died, was buried, and was raised on the third day, all according to the scriptures. And then he appeared alive to so many witnesses, and then finally to Paul himself, when he called Paul and changed his life. Paul claims NO credit as an apostle – this is all by the grace of God, he says. All his labor to spread the good news is purely by the grace of God. His calling was a gift from God, to be used to help others believe.

In this passage, the good news Paul describes almost has a life of its own, brought to places by human news bringers, and once in a place it becomes a home to abide in, a rock to cling to: Jesus died a human death and was raised by God. If we believe this, we too, when we die a human death, will be raised by God. It is so simple. And as we all know people who may be suffering or even on the brink of dying, we can bring them this good news, just as Paul did, and the good news, by the grace of God, will be their salvation, too. Amen.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for Paul’s clear telling of the good news of Jesus’s death that conquered death and his rising that promises our rising. Help us listen to Paul as the early Christians did and then share the gift of the good news with others. Amen.